London: With Chris Tremlett still recovering from a back injury, pacer Tim Bresnan is set to retain his place in the England cricket team for the third Test against India starting August 10 in Edgbaston.

Tremlett has admitted that the back injury is still troubling him.

"Every day my injury has felt a bit better. It's niggling a bit. I bowled a couple of times in the week, not at full pace, and it has reacted at times and been a bit sore," Tremlett was quoted as saying by newspapers here.

"The next two days will give me the chance to see how I go in training and I'll be monitored to see if I'm fit enough to go into the game," he added.

Tremlett said he "was desperate to play the last game, but I was pretty honest with where I was."

"I had a fitness test and I knew realistically I wouldn't have got through the game. The last thing I wanted to do was let my team-mates down by not being 100 per cent fit and playing," he conceded.

"It's the same for this week. Hopefully my back will improve, but I have to make a fair call on whether I'm fit enough to get through a game. I guess we'll find out over the next few days of training."

"It's just a spasm and a bit disc-orientated, but I've been told it is nothing too serious. I've done a fair bit of bowling over the last couple of years without a huge amount of breaks so my back has taken a bit of a hammering and maybe it has caught up with me," Tremlett added.

Tremlett also said that even if he were to recover, it would still be quite tough for the selectors to ignore Bresnan, who scored a 90 and took a five-wicket haul in the second Test.

"You have to be realistic. It was a pretty special performance from Bres and although I've not done much wrong when I've played there are only three fast bowling slots," he said.

"It's hard to drop someone who's put in a performance like that," he added.